My boyfriend and I really need a quick Vacation and we don't have a lot of money to go very far. Living in Toronto we have made trips to both Montreal and New york, but we are looking to see someplace new. It's only about 5 hours drive to Detroit, so we figured what the hell! For our last Vacation (to Montreal), I found the square full of lots of cool stuff to see and eat and it was really helpful. I don't really see very much on Detroit, though. So Detroit PPkers, please tell me what's cool in your city!

No one ever thinks to vacation in Detroit, so we don't get to talk about it much, but there are a million cool things to do here. And the best part is that most of them are free! What kind of things are you interested in? It's not a vegan Mecca, but you won't starve. Here are my top suggestions of things to do:

Must see free (or almost) things:Ride the People Mover. It costs $0.50 and is a good way to see the city and get a sense of orientation.Go to the Guardian Building. It's considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The lobby is open on weekends.Saturday morning, go to Eastern Market, which is the oldest operating farmers' market in the country. Then head over to Belle Isle for a picnic. While you're there, go to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and check to see if any freighters are coming up or down the river. Then walk over to the Conservatory. Both are free.No trip to Detroit is complete without seeing Michigan Central Station, the abandoned train station that has become the new icon of Detroit. It's fenced off and pretty heavily guarded, so you can't get inside, but it's still amazing.The Heidelberg Project is a multi-block art installation that is pretty famous.The Hare Krishna at the Fisher Mansion have a free vegetarian lunch on Sundays. I haven't been in a while, so you might want to confirm it's still at 11, but it's free food in an awesome old house with a totally different culture.If you want to see urban ruins, go to Brush Park.For urban spelunking, go to the Packard Plant. Or for $10, go to the Piquette Plant (birthplace of the Ford Model T) where you'll get a tour.Hamtramck Disneyland is a collection of whirligigs in an alley. Maybe not worth going to if it's your only destination, but Hamtramck is home to the Painted Lady dive bar, Small's dive bar/music venue, and Planet Ant comedy theatre, so it's worth a detour if you're already going to be in the area.

Museums:The Detroit Institute of Art is full of awesome things. It's worth the $8 admission just to see the Diego Rivera murals.I've never been, but people love the Motown Museum.The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is closed until mid-September, but then it is free.

Food (most of the places I know are in Midtown):Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes: vegan crepes - do I need to say more?The Raw Cafe in MidtownGolden Gate Cafe is a mostly vegan, hippie place in the ghettoRussell St Deli near Eastern Market has a few vegan options, but expect to spend 45 minutes in line if you go on a Saturday morning. Any other time is fine. Taste of Ethiopia is next door and has a delicious buffet for about $10Detroit Brunch is a vegan carryout brunch service one Sunday a month. It's pretty much your only chance at vegan breakfast in the city.Woodbridge Pub has a few vegan veggie burgers.Don't miss Avalon Bread and Goodwell's Market next door. Buy a loaf of dill scallion bread (and some vegan cookies!) at Avalon, then buy a tub of EB at Goodwell's and devour both. Seriously, it's the best bread in the world. Or if you want something more substantial than flour and oil for lunch, Goodwell's has vegan pocket sandwiches for $3 that are phenomenal. They also have prepared raw food.

Assuming you're over 21:If you want to do something fancy, one night, dress up and get a cocktail at Coach Insignia at the top of the Renaissance Center. You can look across to Canada from 70 stories up.Cliff Bell's is a restored jazz club that will make you think it's 1935. There's sometimes a cover and the drinks aren't cheap, but I think it's worth it.PJ's Lager House always has great bands, cheap beer, and even an awesome vegan burrito.The Majestic Complex is also fun. There is a fancy restaurant (with some vegan Mediterranean food), bowling alley, two concert halls and a roof-top bar.There are also three large Vegas-style casinos here, if that interests you.

Hopefully the other Detroiters will fill in my gaps. If you have bikes, it's an incredibly great place to just ride around for a weekend. Wide roads, no traffic, and endless things to see. If you are looking for a cheap place to stay, Hostel Detroit just opened in the super-hip Corktown neighborhood.

Thanks Laura8it! This is all really helpful stuff, I appreciate it. I should have mentioned that I like to go to art galleries, so I will look into the Detroit Institute of art. Thanks for letting me know that MOCAD is closed till mid sept, I missed that on their website! I will be coming the labor day long weekend. Also... Motown Museum! I'm so going there!I noticed you recommended many restaurants in the Midtown area. We are still looking to book our hotel, would you recommend that area? It would be nice to have food options close by.

The only hotel in Midtown (I think) is the Inn on Ferry Street. It's a great place to stay.

Check out the Detroit Artists Market (also in Midtown). The Arts, Beats and Eats festival is Labor Day weekend in Royal Oak. There are a lot of good bands this year and there are always neat art vendors.

On Sunday night go to Woodbridge Pub for PieSci vegan pizza (they have rotating menu each week). Get it carryout and go across the street to catch the movies in the garden!

I highly recommend biking through the city. It's very bikeable and it's a great way to see everything, plus we have all those fancy new bike lanes! There are lots of community gardens to check out if you're into that sort of thing and it's cool to cruise past them on a bike ride.

Head to Mexicantown, too! There are some cool little shops and be sure to get some tortillas from one of the tortilla factories. The restaurants aren't the most vegan-friendly, but Mexican Village has delicious spinach-mushroom enchiladas that are vegan if you get them sans cheese. Cafe Con Leche is a neat coffeeshop right on Clark Park, but I'm not actually sure if they have soy milk; I've never asked.

Right down the street from the aforementioned PJ's Lager House is Astro Coffee (which just opened) and Slow's BBQ. Unfortunately, Slow's no longer has any vegan options, but if you're just veggie or omni, I hear everything there is delicious (and nationally famous) and the Genius sandwich is vegetarian -- and all my veggie friends looove it. Astro is an amazing coffeehouse that serves delicious pour-over coffee. It's a great little place - very aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) and sometimes they have vegan treats that are made in-house! It can get a little busy, but it's a great cup of coffee.

If you end up going to Avalon (you should! it's great!) definitely get one of their Date Bars. SO DELICIOUS.

And if you find yourself in Hamtramck and hungry, there are some great Indian restaurants. I really like ZamZam, which serves Bangladeshi cuisine.

I also recommend going downtown and just looking at all the great, old architecture in the business district (e.g. the Guardian Building, the Buhl Building, the Conway Building, etc). Also take a walk along the Riverfront; it's really nice and relaxing. Oooh and speaking of beautiful buildings, go to the Fisher Building up in New Center! If you go during business hours, you can get into the second floor alcoves, but the lobby is open 24 hours and it's incredible. Seriously, go.

Like laura8it, I definitely recommend going to Eastern Market on Saturday morning. It's always packed with people and vendors. It's really great; I go every week (except this week, actually -- I'll be out of town).

Along with the DIA and the Motown Museum, I also recommend the African American History Museum. It's really awesome and interesting.

Oh yeah and the Detroit Jazz Festival is this weekend! It's right downtown around Campus Martius. It's worth checking out if you like jazz.

Other bars/nightlife:Cafe D'Mongos - only open Friday nights and sometimes the occasional Saturday, always packed, always fun. Bronx Bar - also has a Make-Your-Own-Bloody-Mary bar on Saturday mornings)Park Bar - has Bucharest Grill inside it and their falafel sandwich can be veganized. It's not the best, but it's great when you're drunk. They also have good greasy curly fries and baba gahnoush.Motor City Brewing Works - great brewery with good pizza. I always get one veganized (I can't remember which one offhand) and it's delicious. Great drinks, too.Old Miami - has a nice patio out back, strong drinks.Temple Bar - I've never actually been there when there's not a Haute 2 Death dance party, but the drinks are cheap.

I'm forgetting so many things, but I'll try to update it if I remember more! I hope you enjoy your time here! I love this place.

Oh! Retail-wise, right next to Motor City Brewing Works are City Bird and the Bureau of Urban Living. Both are great little shops with lots of cool little things, quite a bit of which are Detroit-themed/based. I also recommend Leopold's Books, which is a couple doors down from Good Girls Go to Paris. They are primarily graphic-novel based, but they definitely have other books, too. Great to browse. John K. King is an enormous, amazing used book retailer. So easy to get lost for hours looking at books. Mantra is a really cool vintage store in the Cass Corridor. If you're into vintage furniture/clothes also check out Pauline's Closet in Midtown and Rachel's Place in Corktown. There are also some great vintage places in Hamtramck. The Architectural Salvage Warehouse is cool to check out. I wouldn't make it a priority, as I highly doubt you'll find anything there to bring back with you (it's mostly big items), but it's cool to see all the materials they have.

I also forgot - Northern Lights Lounge is a good bar. They have free shuffleboard, which I think is super fun.

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted anything sooner but I've been super busy with work stuff.We had an awesome time in Detroit, my boyfriend is already trying to think up reasons to go back! We think we might come down again for a Lions game. Being baseball fans, we went to see a Tigers game. Comerica Park is amazing, I'm so glad we went early so we could walk around and check it out. We heard that you can actually get Vegan burger there, but we weren't very hungry so we just got fries. this guy in front of us was a professional eater (not joking, he had the pics to back it up!) and he downed an entire beer in one second flat. Hilarious and so gross.We made the mistake of coming on a long weekend so the city was pretty much deserted and a lot of things were unfortunately closed. We did go up to ferndale and my boyfriend got a vintage shirt at the rust belt market, we had a lemonade and watched the band that were playing in the middle of the market. We eat at Avalon and it was pretty great, good coffee too, it's the place to go went in detroit for sure. We also got some snacks at Goodwell's next door, they may be small but they are really friendly and the house made baked goods are tasty. We got out to see the Michigan Central station (that place is crazy, you are right Laura8bit, it is a must see). It was crazy to see so many abandoned buildings. I have lived in both Vancouver and Toronto (Canada), two cities that have the exact opposite problem of too many people and not enough housing. I am still trying to wrap my head around that. We wond up at the Magestic one night and that place is AWESOME. seriously. It's the oldest automated bowling alley still running in north america and you can bowl till 2 in the morning. awesome bar up front that was having auto-tuned karaoke that night. My boyfriend is straight-edge so I would really recommend that place as a cool night spot for those who don't do alcohol. Better to go on a weeknight, as it appears that their rates for bowling spike up on the weekends. thanks also for the suggestion to go to Eastern Market, it's open on Tuesdays as well as Sundays, this seems to be a new thing. I had some great coffee from a stand there, the guy said he was aiming to open up a storefront near the Magestic complex within the next year. I think it was called Great lakes coffee. Yes, the line up at the Russel St. deli was insane, but I can see why. That place was delicious! The yellow peas soup was worth the wait. seriously, I will go back there for sure next time I am in Detroit.Thanks again for the suggestions everyone, I hope that I can come back soon and check out more stuff!